East LA Express

EAST LOS ANGELES COMMUNITY OF SCHOOLS

Celebrating Pi Day!

March 14 is Pi Day! which celebrates circles and math. A day to help kids learn and love math through celebrations and sweet treats. Pi Day was officially established as the International Day of Mathematics in 2019. Pi is a mathematical constant that describes the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. See below how our schools in East LA celebrated.

Discuss the dangers of skipping class

Many teens think skipping a class isn’t a big deal—especially after all of the pandemic-related learning disruptions this past year. However, studies show that students who skip classes:

· Fall behind because they no longer understand the topics being taught.

· Feel disconnected from the school.

· Are more likely to consider dropping out of high school.

· Are less likely to enroll in higher education.

Insist your teen attend every class, every day. Be sure to:

· Make attendance a priority in your family. Talk to your teen about why it is important.

· Contact the teacher if you suspect your teen may be skipping a class. If your teen knows you

will check up on her, she will be more likely to stay in school.

· Remind your teen that going to school is the law—skipping class is considered truancy.

Reprinted with permission from the September 2021 issue of Parents Still make the difference!® (High School Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2021 The Parent Institute®, a division of PaperClip Media, Inc. Source: Preventing Missed Opportunity: Taking Collective Action to Confront Chronic Absence , Attendance Works.

Lane Elementary School Making Attendance a Priority

Lane ES has an attendance committee of dedicated teachers that have planned and coordinated a school-wide campaign to encourage daily attendance. Our PTA has joined our campaign and contributed a monthly pizza party for the class with the highest attendance percentage for the 25-day cycles we began January 18th. Our first attendance assembly was a hit and we raffled three top prizes for students with perfect attendance, and sttudents with great and good attendance had a separate drawing. Here are some pictures of our winners collecting their prizes.

Perez Career and Transition Center Agricultural Program

In 2015 Perez CTC took on a project that has "bloomed" beautifully. What used to be an empty dirt space is now a flourishing garden. The garden at Perez serves as the main tool to teach students about agriculture. In agriculture class students learn the process of cultivating, how to prepare the soil with fertilizer, plant seeds, water the plants, and dig up weeds from the garden.

Students also set up potted plant arrangements to sell to staff and the community. The money they gather from their sales is used to invest back into the garden, such as buying fertilizer, gardening tools, seeds, and pots. Currently, the garden is mainly composed of a variety of succulent plants, and also has a green house, a fountain, and a small bridge.

Through collaboration and team work, students consistently care for the garden and learn the process of cultivating. They also practice skills such as communication, organization, planning, and how to safely use gardening tools. The ultimate goal of the agricultural program is for students to be able to apply these skills in their every day lives, and at a larger scale.